1650 Jews Flee to Palestine to escape oppression
According to the Christian French traveler Laurent d’ Arvieux
“Five thousand Jews, Spanish, Italian, and German—driven east by oppression, settled in Hebron, Gaza, Ramleh, Nablus, Safed, Tiberias and Sidon. In the last town they were locked at night in their quarter, with the key in the possession of the governor.”
Source: De Haas, Jacob; History of Palestine – The Last Two Thousand Years. Darvieux, Memoires, I, p 307